Social anxiety?

[CooCoo4CocoaPuffs]

I’ve noticed (perhaps, extremely belatedly) when I need to speak with someone, especially a stranger, that my vocabulary devolves, I trip over my words, stammer. It’s probably my heart rate skyrockets. My stammering makes me more anxious!

If it gets bad I shake like a chihuahua.

I think I’m autistic (no official diagnosis) but dx with GAD and PTSD.

I think my stammering, getting flustered etc has gotten worse now that I’m in my 50s.

I just took a rando social anxiety test online (I know, not a replacement for a pro) and it indicated a probability of SAD. I also have a very difficult time responding to strangers greeting me the rare time (see; PTSD paranoia) I go for a walk. My mind goes blank; my vocabulary disappears. On a good day I can nod back.

FML.

Can anyone relate?

 

[arfie]

i most definitely relate.

i started life with a speech/hearing defect which held me mostly mute until i was approaching adolescence. i mostly conquered the stutter/stammer, but it has surfaced throughout my life during moments of duress and/or anxiety. random strangers seldom trigger the stutter, but social anxiety has a well-defined role in the adult occurrences. in a way it is a blessing. it gives me added motivation to think before i speak.

i am now 69 years old and beginning to wonder if i am regressing to the mutism. conversating often feels like more work than it is worth, especially on bad hearing days where i have to ask people to repeat themselves in order to converse. seems like not too much of what people say is worth repeating.

 

[CooCoo4CocoaPuffs]

i most definitely relate.

i started life with a speech/hearing defect which held me mostly mute until i was approaching adolescence. i mostly conquered the stutter/stammer, but it has surfaced throughout my life during moments of duress and/or anxiety. random strangers seldom trigger the stutter, but social anxiety has a well-defined role in the adult occurrences. in a way it is a blessing. it gives me added motivation to think before i speak.

i am now 69 years old and beginning to wonder if i am regressing to the mutism. conversating often feels like more work than it is worth, especially on bad hearing days where i have to ask people to repeat themselves in order to converse. seems like not too much of what people say is worth repeating.

wheeeewwwww that hits hard. I have some weird auditory defect that I noticed years ago. Spoken words often sound like Klingon. I’ve found I’ve morphed into a lip reader. It’s not the volume level AFAIK. My “mother” took great delight in punching me on my head. Repeatedly. Causal? Not something like I enjoy ruminating on!

Ps: I cut my douchecanoe parents to the metaphorical curb.

 

[Sideways]

I trip over my words, stammer. It’s probably my heart rate skyrockets. My stammering makes me more anxious!

Fun (read: shit) fact: when we’re acutely anxious or afraid, the part of our brain that produces speech switches off.

When people describe being speechless, or unable to speak, that’s likely exactly what’s happening, on a neurological level. That part of the brain has gone into hibernation. If you had a fMRI going on the person’s brain in that exact moment, lots of their brain would be off the charts with activity…except the speech part. The speech part would be completely dark.

Human brains: very weird, and at times, very dysfunctional!!

 

[arfie]

. It’s not the volume level AFAIK

yet another reason i hate asking people to repeat themselves. they all too often just mumble more loudly. not helpful, my friend. nor is it helpful to stick an amplifier in my ear. thank you for the over-used suggestion.